Katsura Hoshino is a Japanese manga artist from Shiga Prefecture. She made her debut in July 2003 with the publication of her first manga series Continue and is known for her work, D.Gray-man, which began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump in May 2004. She most recently designed characters for the 2013 Sunrise anime, Valvrave the Liberator, making it her first original work on an anime.
Hoshino at the 2008 AnimagiC convention in Bonn, Germany
Two early designs of Allen Walker, the protagonist of D.Gray-man
D.Gray-man is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Katsura Hoshino. Set in an alternate 19th century, it tells the story of a young Allen Walker, who joins an organization of exorcists named the Black Order. They use an ancient substance, Innocence, to combat a man known as the Millennium Earl and his demonic army of Akuma who intend to destroy humanity. Many characters are adapted from Hoshino's previous works and drafts, such as Zone. The series is noted for its dark narrative; Hoshino once rewrote a scene she thought too violent for her young readers.
Manga author Katsura Hoshino incorporated several elements of her one-shot title Zone into D.Gray-man.
Cosplayers of D.Gray-man characters have been popular.
